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A day after announcing the acceleration of federal spending under his economic stimulus plan, President Barack Obama Tuesday called for binding legislation that would force a return to pay-as-you-go budgeting rules.

The so-called paygo approach would mean the federal government could not launch new tax cut or entitlement programs without finding a way to pay for them with budget cuts or revenue increases.

The president also used his appearance in the White House East Room to tout the administration’s success in allowing 10 federally bailed-out banks to repay $68 billion from the Troubled Asset Relief Fund.

The taxpayers, he said, even turned a profit on the TARP deal.

“As this money is returned, we'll see our national debt lessened by $68 billion — billions of dollars that this generation will not have to borrow and future generations will not have to repay,” Obama said.

He framed the issue as one of fairness: At the same time government is demanding responsibility from the private sector, similar standards must also be placed on government as well.

The president ticked through a list of deficit reduction efforts by his administration, including ending unnecessary no-bid contracts, canceling expensive weapons systems and eliminating subsidies to health insurance companies under Medicare.

“All told, in the next four years, the deficit will be cut in half,” he vowed.

Many Republicans and other critics, though, contend the extremely expensive federal bailouts and the trillion-dollar plus budget defifits envisioned in the president’s budget projections make that an unlikely goal.

Flanked by more than 40 members of Congress, including some from the conservative Democratic Blue Dog Coalition, Obama called for a return to paygo budgeting — which would mandate that Congress can only spend a dollar if it saves a dollar somewhere else.

“Paying for what you spend is basic common sense,” he said. “Perhaps that's why, here in Washington, it has been so elusive. “

The announcement was designed to highlight the president’s support for fiscally responsible policies, even as Republicans gain political traction in criticizing him for what they call irresponsible spending.

A Gallup Poll out this week showed danger for the administration on the deficit issue. For the first time, a majority of respondents disapproved of Obama on “controlling federal spending” (51 percent to 45 percent), compared with the 67 percent who viewed him favorably overall.

That may be one reason why Obama sought to portray his political predecessors as the irresponsible ones. “The reckless fiscal policies of the past have left us in a very deep hole,” the president said. “Digging our way out will take time and patience and tough choices.”

Still, the president made his budgetary case a day after announcing plans to accelerate federal spending under his $787 billion economic stimulus plan.

So far, Republicans are skeptical of Obama’s spending efforts. And House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.) Tuesday rejected the president’s assertion that paygo is needed now.

“That’s an interesting claim, given that we have just gone through five months of historic spending of taxpayer dollars,” Cantor said. “We've amassed more debt over the last five months than this country has amassed in the last 200 years.”

Just before the president spoke, Senate Republicans e-mailed reporters, blasting the president’s paygo effort as mere “rhetoric.” They cited media criticism that the federal stimulus spending itself is exempt from the congressional pay-as-you-go rules that already exist.

For his part, the president explained that the deficit spending he’s using to fight the recession is only a short-term effort, insisting that he has a long term vision for fiscal balance.

“As a nation, we have several imperatives at this difficult moment in our history,” Obama said. “We are confronting the worst recession this country has faced in generations. This has required extraordinary investments in the short-term.”

The definition of insanity is Americans voting for the same faces again and again, accepting their explanations that things will be better next time, better next time, better next time....

The definition of absurdity is believing a man who says he's helping you as he holds your head under water.

First BHO fills the troughs of American debt, pilling on buckets and buckets of inflationary spending--for our own good. Then to justify engorging generations with his largess, he's challenging the Congress to TAX US CITIZENS in an inane Pay-as-you-Go scheme TO PAY FOR THAT STIMULUS AND ANY OTHER "STIMULUS" THEY MAY DECIDE TO HELP US WITH! and he smiles. It is good.

How many of your are naive enough to believe that cutting spending will take precedence over NEW TAXES? VAT. Cap & Trade.

An appropriate PAYG program would be to eliminate anything necessary to cover the new debt. Who wouldn't give up a PIG POOP study, a study of the sex life of the Japanese quail, a study of the breeding habits of woodchucks, a program to teach college students how to watch television....

The big problem with insanity is that it is infectious.. Over half the Congress appears ready to succumb.

The ony way to cure it is to require anyone having served more than 12 years in office to GO HOME AND LIVE THEIR VOTES.

Essentially the message of Obama's speech boils down to "I think all you people are stupid".

His press conferences of late have become insults to our intelligence.

...So you disagree we shouldn't have pay as you go? I don't understand the backlash, other than you usual kids who just are republican and thus feel like you have to attack everythign Obama does, regardless of if its a good idea or not. Why not close some of the loopholes, make it harder for congress to deficit spend? Why is that insulting to your intelligence?

If you heard the thundering hooves pounding ominously close, knowing that you would soon and certainly be run over, would you continue on the same path or seek a more safe course? If all around you were warnings of an impending storm, would you choose safe harbor or continue naively to your destruction?

Congress must not get the same news the average citizens are reading. They continue to cause money to be printed and inflation to increase apparently just to garner votes. Garnering votes for condom distribution, studying pig farts, creating interstate highways on an island and other mythical needs documented countless times but still they’re left to do their deeds. Apparently, the definition of insanity is Americans voting for the same faces each time, expecting better things next time, next time, next time…

The definition of insanity is Americans voting for the same faces again and again, accepting their explanations that things will be better next time, better next time, better next time....

The definition of absurdity is believing a man who says he's helping you as he holds your head under water.

First BHO fills the troughs of American debt, pilling on buckets and buckets of inflationary spending--for our own good. Then to justify engorging generations with his largess, he's challenging the Congress to TAX US CITIZENS in an inane Pay-as-you-Go scheme TO PAY FOR THAT STIMULUS AND ANY OTHER "STIMULUS" THEY MAY DECIDE TO HELP US WITH! and he smiles. It is good.

How many of your are naive enough to believe that cutting spending will take precedence over NEW TAXES? VAT. Cap & Trade.

An appropriate PAYG program would be to eliminate anything necessary to cover the new debt. Who wouldn't give up a PIG POOP study, a study of the sex life of the Japanese quail, a study of the breeding habits of woodchucks, a program to teach college students how to watch television....

The big problem with insanity is that it is infectious.. Over half the Congress appears ready to succumb.

The ony way to cure it is to require anyone having served more than 12 years in office to GO HOME AND LIVE THEIR VOTES.

Raising taxes is an easy way to get voted out of offices...most americans are morons and pay very little attention to the details... but raising taxes is easily recognizable, and an easy way to get voted out of office... Tax hikes aren't gonna come to fund some.. pig study. (with that said, all those studies you say are worthless is why you are able to drink clean water, and breat the air...but again, like I said most americans are stupid and don't pay attention to the details)...

There is plenty of wasteful spedning in DC, but painting everything you don't understand as "a waste" is dumb... Their is nothing wrong with a pay as you go system...odds are Obama will half the deficit by the time he leaves, simply because we aren't going have have stimulus 2010, or bailout round 4 or TARP part 3.... alot of the spending this year will be off the books (other than the intrest), a that slash the current debt... he's been slowly cutting 100 million here and there...and with pay as you go it'll help prevent the rapid increase in defcit spending that we've seen over the past 8 and a half years.

REMEMBER STIMULUS IS A BLUE STATE BAILOUT PLAN WRAPPED IN A THINLY DISGUISED JOBS BILL.

IN ORDER TO GET MOST THE THE BLOCK GRANTS, THE APPLICATIONS HAVE TO BE FOR SOCIALIZED PROGRAMS AND MAKE-WORK GREEN PROJECTS AND MOSTLY IN BLUE STATES WITH MAJOR BUDGET DEFICITS LIKE CALIFORNIA, NEW YORK, NEW JERSEY, ETC.

THESE ARE THE BIG ROCKS IN THE STIMULUS PORK...NO WONDER NANCY PELOSI WAS A GREEN POGO (NOT PAYGO) STICK WHEN OBAMA ADDRESSED THE JOINT SESSION OF CONGRESS AFTER SIGNING THE STIMULUS:

STATE FISCAL RELIEF $79.0B ( for a few government jobs that Obama could claim)

MEDICAID FOR STATES $87.0B

COBRA HEALTHCARE $36.0B

K-12 EDUCATION $26.6B ( for a few government jobs that Obama could claim)

ENERGY EFFECIENCY $11.0B

HUNGER PROGRAMS $13.5B

WATER RESOURCES $1.24B

WILDFIRE MITIGATION $0.85B

BORDER STATIONS $1.2B

LOCAL LAW ENFORCE $4.0B ( for a few government jobs that Obama could claim)

BIOMED RESEARCH $0.9B

REMEMBER OBAMA SAID THE PURPOSE WAS TO SPEND MONEY ( A POINT HE SAID THE OPPOSITION HAD MISSED)....MAYBE HE MISSED THE POINT...THE PURPOSE WAS SUPPOSED TO BE JOBS, THAT WERE BEING LOST IN THE PRIVATE SECTOR THAT CREATES MORE PERMENENT, HIGHER PAYING JOBS.

I THINK PELOSI, OBIE, EMANUAL AND OBAMA NEED TO SAVE THEIR PERSONAL RECORDS, DOCUMENTS, EMAILS, AND MEETING NOTES FOR INVESTIGATION WHEN THIS BLOATED, INEFFECTIVE SPENDING MESS HITS THE FAN.

...Ms. Pelosi has something different in mind. Under her paygo plan, new entitlement programs and all new tax cuts would have to be offset by either cutbacks in other entitlement programs or tax increases. This version of paygo is a budget trapdoor, designed not to control expenditures but to make it easier to raise taxes while blocking future tax cuts.

What paygo does restrain are tax cuts, by requiring that any tax cut be offset dollar-for-dollar with some entitlement reduction. Congressional budgeteers always overestimate the revenue losses from tax cuts, which under paygo would require onerous budget cuts to "pay for" the tax cuts. As a political matter, those spending cuts will never happen..."

The administration has realized what people like "tea-partiers" have been saying for months, now they're in a pickle because of Obama's promise not to raise taxes on the middle class, but we all know its coming. Paygo is just the set-up for higher taxes. Mark my words.

Where did Senator 0zero talk about paygo when he voted for the $750 Billion TARP? Where was 0zero on paygo when he supported $150 Billion in AIG bailouts? Where was 0zero on paygo when he spent $800 Billion on his Porkulus bill? Where was 0zero on paygo when he spent $50 Billion on GM/Chrysler? Where was 0zero on paygo when he spent $650 Billion on his "health care downpayment" as part of his $2 trillion budget?

The naivete of kool aid drinkers should be an insult to any thinking American.

Name a reigning (term intended) Congressman who would rather 'sunset' a government agency, an entitlement program, risk the vote for a sane decision...RATHER than vote to raise taxes.

Any ONE CONGRESSwo/man with that reputation would be venerated. But 60% voted for the unread stimulus bill--an albatross on generations of American children.

Pay as you Go means TAX AS NEEDED.

Uhm, their budget resolutions that eliminate spending and programs every year....... what are you talking about?

As for the stimlus bill, I believe it was needed.. as did 60% of congress... as one of the peopel who odds are have to pay for you and your generations wasteful spending and wild eyed tax cuts, since our generation is paying for them, along with fighting your multiple wars, and paying for every tax cut you've gotten for the past 20 years..how about you realax when you start attacking spending that will actually imporve our eneryry grid in the future, repair roads, which you have destroyed yet didn't fund the repairs, and help the fund schools my kids will have, improve grants for college...

Why are you against the stimulus plan? Roll back all the stimulus and we have a tanked economy, record deficit... have hundreds of road projects which go undone, have schools being forced to let teachers go, and local taxes being raised to fund shortages, we have a tighten credit market, (which as a small busienss owner is was my biggest concern).. why are you against the TARP (im assuming you were agasinst that too) spending and the stimulus?

Not sure why he bothers sometimes. When Obama devoted 40% of the stimulus to tax cuts, conservatives just spit in his face. Now he's offering a paygo system that will deliver more fiscal restraint than their borrow-to-fund-tax-cuts scheme ever has and again, they spit in his face. I think he genuinely is a concensus building leader but he's got to learn that conservatives are only concerned with getting back in power. Its all politics with them and they will never forgive him for humiliating them on the worldstage in the last election. Good thing for Obama though is that the conservatives are now invested in our failure. They can't get elected if the economy rebounds. Let's see how it turns out. I'm betting he makes that mark of cutting it in half in four years. Remember conservatives claimed Clinton couldn't do it either and we know how that worked out don't we.